Alliander has sold electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions specialist Allego to Meridiam, a French investment firm specialising in the development, financing and management of long-term and sustainable infrastructure projects.
Allego develops throughout Europe charging solutions and charging infrastructure for electric transport for municipalities, provinces, companies and transport companies. Drake Star Partners acted as exclusive financial adviser to Alliander in this transaction.
Headquartered in Arnhem, Netherlands, Allego has made a significant contribution to the development of charging infrastructure in Europe, making significant market share gains over the past five years. With Allego, Alliander wanted to learn what the impact of electric charging would be on the electricity grid and wanted to develop solutions to prevent unnecessary social investments in the electricity networks. The acquired knowledge and experience is also included in the development of the new Climate Agreement, where one of the issues is how sustainable mobility in the Netherlands can best be realised.
Alliander’s CEO Ingrid Thijssen, says: “Alliander launched Allego in 2013 with the aim of creating a big enough EV-charging network to allow people to drive their electric cars with freedom and confidence, and to develop solutions to ensure that e-charging doesn’t overload the electricity grid.
“I’m delighted that we’ve found a new owner for Allego who shares this vision. As a long-term international investor in infrastructure, Meridiam ties in very well with Allego’s activities and is perfectly positioned to support it through the next phase of rapid international growth. The sale recoups Alliander’s initial outlay in Allego.”
In October 2017, Drake Star Partners had already advised NewMotion – a provider of charging solutions for electric vehicles – in its sale to Shell. By regularly discussing future relevant opportunities with private equity firms, infrastructure funds, strategic buyers including OEMs, Utilities, Oil & Gas companies, The European Investment Bank and other hybrid solution providers, Drake Star Partners keeps building up its expertise and coverage in the mobility space.
“We are extremely happy for all parties involved and to have found a solution that allows Allego to fulfil its future ambitions and to secure the independence it needs to become the best and truly open EV infrastructure across Europe” says Frank Verbeek, Managing Partner at Drake Star. He continued: “Due to the nature of the project, it was a quite complex carve-out, equity sale and financing transaction which we managed to execute in just over five months. Given our recent and continuous advisory work in this space, we foresee a large number of new EV-related transactions coming about the near future. To respond to this increase in demand, we have extended our team to ensure we can manage the requests for advice in the EV sector. We believe that our track-record and continuing work in the EV space uniquely positions Drake Star as a leader in projects relating to future mobility and green infrastructure.”
